Football
Associated Press 16y

NBA announces details for day of community service in New Orleans

NEW YORK -- Before they take to the basketball court in New
Orleans, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan will help unveil a new one.

The court refurbishment and dedication at the Mahalia Jackson
School in Central City was among the plans the NBA announced
Thursday for its "All-Star Day of Service" next Friday, two days
before the All-Star game at New Orleans Arena.

Players will take part in 10 projects throughout the city,
ranging from the rebuilding of homes to the construction of
playgrounds. The league expects more than 2,500 people in town for
the weekend to participate in one of the community efforts.

"This is a standard operating procedure for us. It's who we are
and what we do," commissioner David Stern said. "We're doing it a
little bit more in New Orleans for a couple of reasons, but the
most important of which in some way is to demonstrate how the city
is in fact coming back."

It's the largest yet in a number of efforts the NBA has made to
aid the city's recovery. Stern announced New Orleans would host
All-Star weekend in May 2006, just nine months after Hurricane
Katrina had devastated the region. Two months earlier, the Hornets
hosted the Los Angeles Lakers in the first professional sports
event in New Orleans after the hurricane.

This season, every visiting team will take part in a community
service activity.

"I've done a lot of stuff in New Orleans as it is, I'm looking
forward to doing some more," Lakers All-Star Kobe Bryant said
earlier this week. "But that's one of the places that I've really
been active in. It's something else for us to do in New Orleans."

Bryant will be part of crew that will construct homes with
Habitat for Humanity. LeBron James is part of a team helping
restore existing homes that have been abandoned, while others will
aid in the cleaning up and improvement of schools.

Garnett, Duncan and some other players who endorse adidas will
be at the community center, where three playgrounds will be built.
Adidas is one of the sponsors of that event, one of the 30 partner
organizations contributing millions of dollars and product
donations.

The weekend won't be all work, though.

"The Friday activity is sort of a Friday day of giving. But
after that, hey, I mean just as the people who came to the Sugar
Bowl, the BCS championship, the Mardi Gras, this is a town that
knows how to host a big party. We're going to party some," Stern
said. "But Friday is an opportunity to have a day of service.
Because this is an American city and this is everybody's city and
we have to do a good job of helping them out."

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